Act I: Going in Alone
“I think it’s time we got back to the matter at hand… Tracking down the killers.” Dyspo said. “The Phantom knows a lot about the case, but she’s gonna keep that information to herself, while you guys cough up all the information you have on this case. The Detective doesn’t want you guys to be directly involved, thinking that it’s best that we keep this group as small as possible.”
“Okay… about the case, we only know as much info as the department knows and they believe that these were all separate incidents,” Lance pointed out for Dyspo. “However, the Phantom believes that they’re somehow connected. Not the victims themselves, but by how they were killed.”
“Anything else? Like leads, DNA samples, a suspect? Cause your only going off of what we already know.” Dyspo asked.
“We were only informed about this only a few days ago… But according to what I overheard from Phantom the first time I saw her, she found that, like with previous victims, they were bruise marks over the bodies and they looked to have been strangled,” Lance replied, using the holo-table to bring up the images from the Forensics department. “The Forensics team at the Maretropolis PD also made the same conclusion since there were no signs of any wounds or tears to the skin… The only thing we don’t have though are the victim’s identities.”
“Well seven ponies were killed in total, three of them strangled, one was drowned in sulfur water, and the remaining three were beaten to death, but even with all that, there were no fingerprints found.”
“Um… If I may officer,” Poet then spoke up. “Ponies don’t need fingerprints. Normally, one can identify who somepony is by their cutie mark.”
“That’s not the point I’m making… Whoever killed them wasn’t a pony, these killers had hands, otherwise we would have left this case to the pony division. And as far as we know, these ponies were normal everyday ponies.” Dyspo stated.
“Officer Dsypo makes a valid point,” Lance replied back, before looking back at him and asking a rather… particular question. “Would the department happen to have some form of record as to citizens in Maretropolis that aren’t ponies. Like You, Me, the Phantom or Gabby for example?”
“That would take us a very long time to look over. Months even and more ponies will die if we search the data base for the records of non-pony civilians.”
That was when Poet left the room… and when Lance’s companion, Lumen, decided to step in. “Well, if I may… those marks on the bodies looked like they could only be done if the killer was a human, minotaur… or somepony with a shapeshifting ability because it is entirely possible.”
“But wouldn’t that still take awhile? Cause even in this city, there are quite a few who have those features.” Gabby interjected. “I mean, there are so many humans, minotaurs in this city.”
However, while they were talking, Lumen was already busy at work on something… and a few moments later, had a surprise for them. “Done.”
“Wait, what?” Lance asked. “What do you mean ‘done’?”
“Well, I looked at the list of the peoples names, cross referenced the pictures of the bruise marks and their size with photo’s of who could possibly on that list and narrowed down possible options. Just because I’m a soul doesn’t mean I can’t be able to have fun with tech.” She replied, showing a short list of the potential suspects. But… the one that stood out the most was what Lance thought as a mistake.
“Lumen, why is Commander Shepard on that list?”
“Well, his hand size while wearing his combat armor, along with the size of his hands match the size of the bruise marks on most of the victims. Though, it’s one possibility,” Lumen replied back. “It may be possible that it’s a potential lookalike or copycat.”
“Bullshit! Commander Shepard has been on the force for nearly a year now and these killings started happening two months ago! There’s no way he could be a suspect!” Gabby defended as Dyspo nodded in agreement.
“I have to agree, that’s a load of crap! He’s a hero! Why would he be a suspect and what would his motive be? You don’t just decide to become a hero and then suddenly decide to kill somepony. Take him off that list! It has to be these other twenty suspects!” Dyspo added as he glared at Lumen.
“Um… If I may,” Lance interjected. “Both Lumen and I are… unfamiliar with that of Commander Shepard. In fact, if he is a hero and has helped the department, then how much does the department know about him? Does he do anything aside from hero work? Because unless they’re professional heroes or paid by the hero’s association, he’s gotta find a way to keep a roof over his head right?”
“He works as an accountant at the city bank? He shared that information with me when we went to take care of an armed robbery!” Dyspo explained.
Lance thought it over for a moment… before looking back to Lumen. “Alright, Lumen… take it off for right now. Set him as ‘rather unlikely’.” To which, Lumen made a subcategory on that list and then set Shepards name aside. “Now… for the ones we are talking about… is it possible that they could’ve used some form of weapon to choke them out? Like a whip, rope or set of chains?”
“Well I doubt that, the Phantom had already deduced that those bruises around the neck were by hand. As for the beaten bodies, they also had hand marks as well. The only one that is unique to the rest of these murders is that one pony was drowned in sulfur water. And we’re looking for multiple killers cause of the many tracks that were discovered.” The officer explained as he folded his arms and began to look at the individual pictures of all the suspects.
“Hmm… The Sulfur water part makes me think that the ones who were the killers have some kind of background with chemicals or chemistry. It can’t just be a coincidence that something like sulfur water just happened to be lying around.” The Adept replied.
“So what do you think it is… Gunvolt?” Gabby asked as she scooted closer to the adept.
“Well… without the Phantom providing any information to us and who she thinks could be a suspect, it’s a tough call to make,” The Adept replied back. However, when he looked at the security feed, he realized something. “Hey… Phantom said she was waiting outside right?”
“Yeah why?” Gabby replied.
“Well… I just looked at the security feed and… she’s not there.” Lance pointed it out to them, bringing up the holographic projection of the live feed right now and seeing that no one was out front. “Did she just… leave on her own?”
“Crap, I should have known she’d pull something like this!” Dyspo shouted as he began to make a run for the exit. “You coming or what, Gunvolt!”
“Right behind you!” He replied, before looking at Saffron and his team. “Saffron, be on standby for extraction if things go south. Poet, I need you and Stella to maintain the comms feed for right now and help us out.”
“Roger that!” He replied, even giving a mock salute as both of them went out the door. But before they left, Lance then had one last thing to say.
“Gabby… Can you stay with Poet and the team for right now? I know that you want to see me in action, but your safety right now is my highest priority. Can you wait here until Officer Dyspo and I come back?”
“Okay…” She replied, pouting as she took a seat at the table. “Be safe!”
Meanwhile
Katy had already begun to make her way downtown Maretropolis, getting impatient and frustrated as the longer she stayed there, the more those memories began to flood back into her and she hated it. She didn’t want to believe that those were true and wanted nothing to do with Gunvolt, Quill, or any of those heroes. She was gonna solve this case by herself and prove that she’s a true hero as well.
Just as she landed in a nearby ally another image of her and Lance appeared in her mind. The two of them were in a wasteland with a lot of devastation around them. Wreckage and debris were scattered everywhere, along with what looked like several pieces of scrap metal.
“I-I want to believe you… But there’s no Proof that you even remotely Care! Cobalion told me that you're my mission and I belong to only the Beast King.” She heard a voice similar to her own shout at him, while Lance just looked forward towards her, even though this Katy was being hostile to him at first.
“They don’t know who you are… I do… and I want to be with you… to the end of the line.” He told her, hugging her in response.
“Prove it to me then!” She heard Katy shout. Though, it sounded like Katy was crying under her helmet as Lance looked back at her.
“Let me see your face… and then I can show you.” With that one line… the masked woman that sounded like her turned out to actually be her. Everything from her face to her eyes was almost identical. But it was just as they were about to kiss that the Phantom snapped back to reality… and tried to focus her mind on what was important.
“Grr… That isn’t me! It can’t be me… I just need to focus and track down those bastards before they harm somepony else.” Katy said as she took a deep breath and began to make her way down the alley, where she found a dark figure wearing a black trench coat and hat, standing in the distance with a stallion in hoof against the wall. “Freeze! Drop the pony or I will shoot you.”
The figure turned to her and released the stallion from his grasp. “There… I dropped him.” He said, and from the sound of his voice, it was a bit scruffy and deep. “But you didn’t say I couldn’t kill him!”
He then whirled around and threw a knife into the stallion’s skull, instantly killing him despite trying to crawl away, shocking Katy that he would murder that poor stallion. Right in front of her no less. It made her sick as she tightened her grip on her pistol. “That’s it, put your hands behind your head you sick bastard!”
“Hehehe… I wouldn’t be so worried about me… Phantom… I’d be worried about what my partner is gonna do to these two that are coming this way.” The figure said, pulling up a holotape from his pocket and pressed play and it showed live footage of Dyspo and Gunvolt make their way to her location. “You can either catch me, or stop my partner from making mincemeat out of your friends.”
He said making a run for it as Katy tried to think of who to go after, the one targeting Dyspo and Lance or take down this killer before he gets away. “Dammit! I’m not letting you get away!” She shouted as she gave chase after the killer, believing that both Lance and Dyspo would be fine without her help.
But she could never have been more wrong.
Downtown Area
“How much farther now, Officer?”
“I don’t know, all I know is that the Phantom does most of her work downtown in alleyways. We should start searching-” Before the Officer could say anything else, Lance stopped and also grabbed part of Dyspo’s clothes, holding him back.
“Hold on… We got company,” The adept’s eyes narrowed, looking around as he looked to Dyspo, before stepping forward. “Alright, I know you’re there. Come out with your hands up-”
But before he could even get a chance to finish what he was saying, he was suddenly struck by a dark figure wearing a hood and a white mask and was send crashing into a dumpster. Leaving Lance to come out of it rather quickly, even though that single hit really did a number on him. “The hell? Officer, do you have any idea who this guy is?”
Dyspo only growled as he got into a fighting stance as the masked being turned to him. “The department referred to this guy as the Mask Killer, who was responsible for the deaths of over fifthteen officers! He even killed someone who was a dear friend to the Power Ponies and disappeared for quite sometime, but now it looks like he’s back..”
Dyspo though… was not entirely prepared for what Lance had to say next. “Great… and just when we were close to finding Phantom. Officer, how strong are you when it comes to combat?”
“Well… Not to brag, but it isn’t my first rodeo fighting this guy!” He said as he placed one of his hands behind his back and began to form a red orb of energy as the masked being got into a familiar fighting stance that Lance recognized.
“Hmm… then hear me out with this.” Lance replied back to him. “Let me lend you some of my energy so you can focus on him. While you have that covered, I’ll go find Phantom. Does that seem reasonable to you, Officer?”
“As much as I like that idea… I don’t think your gonna get that chance. He isn’t like those everyday criminals you deal with. Trust me on this, he isn’t someone you can take likely. Not to mention his attacks are crazy, it’s like he can teleport from place to place. Even Commander Shepard had a hard time with him.” Dyspo explained as the orb behind his back continued to grow.
“...... Instant Transmission…” Lance recognized, based on that part alone and realized what he was doing. “Officer, wait-!!”
“JUSTICE CRUSHER!!!” He fired at the hooded being, but he placed two fingers over his masked and he vanished, reappearing behind both Lance and Dyspo, but before he could even strike them, Dyspo had already created another ki blast and turned around immediately with a smirk on his face. “I’m not falling for that trick again!”
“That won’t do… Whatever Dyspo throws at him, this guy can easily be able to outmanuveur it or avoid it all together…” The Adept thought to himself, looking down at his bracer to see that all three skill cards were fully operational. “If we’re to get him, we need to restrain him, not attack!”
But just as the blast was about to hit the masked being, he had grabbed it with his bare hands and crushed it, causing it to explode and send both Dyspo and Lance flying back. As the adept got back up he was soon met by a fist striking across his face as the black hood began to slowly burn away. Just as Lance was about to counter, the masked killed grabbed him by his throat and held him him into the air.
Though, when Dyspo looked at him, he didn’t see the Adept struggle or anything… instead, he saw a grin on his face as electricity began to rapidly form around them. “Crashbolt!!” The attack that came next was powerful and close to the point that it had a couple of pieces on the killer’s mask incinerate. But, it did not break at all. But the damage from the lightning did free Lance from the killer’s grip and allow him to kick the attacker into the same dumpster that he was originally thrown into.
“Well, glad that I learned that skill or else I would be really screwed.”
“Nice one… Maybe we can win-” But before he could even finish, he was soon met by a powerful kick to his torso and sent crashing into the wall before Lance was struck by a large blue orb of energy and sent skidding across the alley and when he stood up. The hood was gone, revealing a man with spiky hair and black armor.
“You… are gonna have to try a lot harder than that if you want to beat me.” The Masked killer said.
Lance… just smirked at that as he looked back at him, electricity channeling around his body now. “Well… you’re just giving me more of a reason to not hold back anymore.”
“T-This isn’t the time… You can’t be serious Gunvolt!” Dyspo shouted, shocked that he was even considering fighting him.
“I am… Normally, I only use a small percentage of my strength because I don’t want to go overboard… but I go higher when someone else is packing more of a punch,” The adept grinned, more electricity forming around him now as he looked back at him. “Officer… get out of here while you still can. Find Phantom.”
“I’ve heard about you… Gunvolt and your reputation seems to proceed you, but I doubt your gonna beat me. Your attacks were pathetic.” He said, placing two fingers over his head. “I’ll give you a taste of what I can do.”
He soon had used instant transmission and grabbed hold of Dyspo and threw him directly at Lance before using instant transmission again. However, Lance had a read on his strength and when the Masked Killer emerged from behind, he was greeted with a punch that sent him crashing through a lamp post and a chain link fence. Damaging some of his armor as Lance looked back at him.
“You aren’t the only one who has the same tricks… or can read energy for that matter,” Lance told him, before doing an instant transmission of his own to knee the masked killer in the face and another to reach Dyspo. “What are you still doing here? Go, now! While you still can! If you can find Phantom, we can make this three against one.”
“Like I had a choice when I got thrown into a wall twice! I’m still learning to use my powers too you know!” He shouted as he got back up and created another orb of energy. “We can’t waste anymore time. We need to go now!”
Lance could only nod, following Dyspo and using a bit of electricity on a steam pipe to cause a distraction as the pipe burst. Making it harder for the Masked Killer to see them as Lance began to suppress his powers and Dyspo firing off a massive ki blast at the killer. “Officer, suppress your energy… If he can read it, that guy can track us.” He whispered, trying to be more focused on running at this point than fighting.
“I know that.” Dyspo whispered back as his energy had already been suppressed and the two began to make a run for it as the Masked Killer emerged from the smoke, unscathed and began to search for where his prey had run off to.
“I will find you two… And I will kill you!”
